Back in 2019, I had the chance to interview Stewart Brand—the Whole Earth Catalog founder who helped shape how we think about information sharing and collaborative systems. Brand understood something fundamental: the best ideas don’t emerge fully formed from a single mind. They evolve through open dialogue, iteration, and community input.
This stuck with me as I was setting up this blog and its URL system. Why follow the tired convention (e.g., /blog/ or /insights/)when there’s a much better model sitting right in front of us?
Enter the RFC: Request for Comments.
For over 50 years, RFCs have been the backbone of internet development. Every major protocol, from HTTP to TCP/IP, started as someone saying “here’s an idea—what do you think?” These weren’t proclamations from on high, but working documents designed to be challenged, refined, and improved.
That’s exactly how I want to approach design thinking here. My posts aren’t definitive statements, they’re starting points for conversation. Whether I’m breaking down a product decision, exploring a design pattern, or questioning industry assumptions, I’m really saying: “Here’s my current thinking—help me make it better.”
So when you see /rfc/ in the URL, know that your comments, disagreements, and extensions are not just welcome—they’re the whole point! Like the internet itself, the best ideas here will always be the ones we build together.
Now, about that comment system…
Note: This post was drafted in collaboration with Claude, Sonnet 4